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Atletico de Rafaela
The Asociacion Mutual Social y Deportiva Atletico de Rafaela, usually referred to just as Atletico de Rafaela, is an institution of the city of Rafaela, in Argentina, with a professional football team, currently playing in the Argentine second division.
History
In 1907 Club Atletico Argentino de Rafaela was founded in the city of Rafaela, Santa Fe Province. In 1915 the name was changed to Club Atletico de Rafaela. The Monumental de Barrio Alberdi concrete stadium was erected in 1951.
The club was turned into a non-profit organization in 1988 renamed to its current denomination of Asociacion Mutual Social y Deportiva Atletico de Rafaela ("Social and Sport Association Rafaela Athletic"). Only a year later the club finally reached the second division after defeating Atletico Ledesma by 3-0.
Atletico de Rafaela played 14 years in the second division until they won the Apertura 2002 and the Clausura 2003 to finally reach first division. After losing the promocion against Huracan de Tres Arroyos, Atletico de Rafaela were relegated back to the second division.
The following season they lost their chance to return to the first division after losing the promocion, against Argentinos Juniors.
In 2009 Rafaela earned another chance to return to the Primera Division via a playoff against Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata. They won the first leg 3-0 but conceded 2 goals in the last few minutes of the return leg against 9 man Gimnasia to end 3-3 on aggregate and stay in the second division where they currently play.
Atletico de Rafaela fans are referred as Cremosos or Celestes, and the Barra de los Trapos is the group of people that follows the team everywhere.
The institution has also, since 1919, an important car racing circuit, which is host of many competitions, including Turismo Carretera (since 1941) and TC 2000 (since 1983).
Honours
Primera B Nacional: Apertura 2002, Clausura 2003
Notable players
To appear in this section a player must have either played at least 50 games for the club, set a club record or played for their national team.
Gustavo Alfaro (1988-92)
Gabriel Schurrer (1989-90)
Gustavo Semino
Gonzalo Del Bono
Federico Garcia
Raul Speedy Gonzalez (1997-00)
Carlos Bonet (1998-01)
Lucas Bovaglio
Hugo Barrientos (2000-04)
Franco Mendoza (2000-05)
Dario Gandin (2001-04)
Ivan Juarez
Ezequiel Medran (2001-04)
Ibrahim Sekagya (2001-02)
Carlos Araujo (2002-04)
Marcelo Barovero (2002-07)
Leonardo Di Lorenzo (2003-04)
Lucas Aveldano (2005-08)
Claudio Bieler (2006-07)
Martin del Campo (2006-07)
External links
Official website
La Crema es de Primera
Atletico es Rafaela
Atletico Rafaela at BDFA
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Atletico de Rafaela
